Home Sweet Home
by ArmAndLeg
Summary: Zim returns to the one place he couldn't call home until much later, after it had been destroyed. Now he has no choice but to call it home. He has no choice but to start over, away from his home planet.


What

Leg: I don't even wanna say when and where I started this fic, but I'm surprised that being so bored could actually create something like this…

Arm: She doesn't want to turn it into a series fic, but something tells me that she is going to…. She was able to hold off the Write-A-Slash instinct though, so far…

Leg: I won't turn it into a series fic! Nope. Not no way, not no how. And you all know I don't own them, so, for you people out there that are money hungry, don't sue me.

Home Sweet Home

Zim looked out over the city, high above his home base. He sighed. Every night he found himself doing this as if he was waiting for something. The Dib-human had left the Earth a long time ago, thinking that Zim had left as well, when Zim really had only gone into hiding.

Zim shivered at the memory. The humans and discovered his secret lair, with the help of Dib's information. He knew he should have upgraded the security systems of the house again, but he continued to ignore the fact that Dib was getting closer to having him discovered. The day they came and infiltrated his home base was giving the day he had gotten banished a run for its money. Paranormal investigators and other scientists had managed to get inside, captured Gir, and then nearly stopped Zim from escaping. 

Growling at the memories, Zim tried to block out what had happened next. How could she? Zim shook his head and told himself to forget about her. She was no longer important—or alive, for that matter. He shuddered. Gaz had tried to stop her brother from shooting him with a laser gun, and ultimately gave up her life so that Zim could be free.

Zim never understood why she had done it, because he could never understand the human mind. He was only able to look as shocked as Dib was when she jumped in front of the blast that was meant for him. He didn't cry though, like Dib had. Zim took the opportunity to make his getaway, but he had always felt guilty afterwards. He could have done something to save her.

Sighing, Zim decided to land the Voot Runner just around his base. He had been unable to contact the Tallest, to tell them that he would most likely be going back to Irk. He had tried to send a signal, but that part of his Voot Runner didn't work because of the damage the scientists had done to it. Zim got out of the ship cautiously, perfectly aware of the fact that some of the humans could still be running tests on his house.

Zim snuck around the base and entered it through a secret entrance only he knew about, since Dib had known most of the others. When he made it into his lab, he saddened immensely. What was once his lab was torn apart, mostly nothing but scrap metal and a giant mess. Not even Gir could create such a mess. He gingerly touched what would have been the computer council, and some of it fell off, causing a resounding crash all through his former glorious lab. 

Zim stood frozen at the spot, praying to whatever god he prayed to that no human was in the base at that time. His breath was slowly released after a few moments of completely silence. Realizing that he was alone in his old base, he decided to look around, for curiosity's sake. Though, his anger slowly bubbled at what the humans had done to his base. Oh, if he _ever_ ran into Dib again…he had no idea what he'd do, but he'd make sure it was painful….

Zim stopped walking when he entered the same room where Gaz had been killed. It frightened him to see that it had been left untouched, if you exclude the memorial of sorts for Gaz. Zim was going to walk past it, but something told him to read it. He slowly walked over to it.

He read what the small sentence had said with wide eyes. He reread the whole thing to make sure he read right. Gaz had _loved_ him? The thought of Gaz feeling such an emotion was always deemed impossible, even to her brother, and Zim knew this. Zim had never heard the last thing Gaz had said after Dib had asked her a teary "Why?" as Dib held her in his arms. The only reason why that was so was because he took that time to escape.

Zim knelt down in front of the small memorial, and noticed that there were some dried up flowers left at it. He could tell that they were about a week or so old.

"I thought you left, Zim?" a voice asked from behind him. Zim stopped breathing momentarily before turning to glare at the person who had spoken. Zim easily knew who it was even before he turned around completely. 

"I thought you left, too, _Dib_," Zim mumbled as he got off the ground. There, before him, was Dib, still dressed in his traditional trench coat, holding a small amount of flowers. Dib went past Zim and replaced the old flowers with the new ones.

"I never left," Dib began with such a casual tone that one would think that he and Zim were good friends. "I might have went after you, thinking that you had left to go back to your home planet, but I came back here when I realized that my father needed me here," Dib continued, not even looking up at Zim as he said it.

Zim chose to ignore Dib. He looked back at the memorial and sighed. "I didn't even know she was here, did you?" he asked suddenly, quietly.

Dib took a little while to answer Zim. "I knew Gaz was here, yes, and I was stupid. I didn't even tell her to stay behind. I was so excited to finally get the chance to capture you like I had dreamed of doing for years that I didn't even think of the dangers I would have been putting her through if she came.

"And then, I never understood why she was trying to stop me. She reasoned with every one of the other Swollen Eyeballs, explaining to them that I was crazy. She did everything in her power to get them and myself to stop," Dib stated. "She really did love you, you know. Why she did, I'll never understand, but she did."

Zim only nodded. He was never really close to Gaz, but he had some sort of feelings for her. He smiled shakily at the memory of when Gaz had saved Dib so that she could spend a night with her father. He was still amazed she was able to figure out how to fly one of his own ships, but then again, Gaz was always the kind of person who could learn controls really quickly. "I never understood the human emotion called love, since on Irk we were taught from the day we were born not to even think of such emotions. They got in our way, when we invaded other planets," Zim explained softly.

"I figured that. I told Gaz that even if she told you that, you wouldn't understand what she meant, or how deeply she felt it for you, as she"—Dib cleared his throat and swallowed—"as she died in my arms," Dib said with great difficulty.

"How's Gir?" Zim asked suddenly, changing the subject quickly.

"You mean your robot?" 

"Yes, him. Did he self-destruct like I had ordered him to?" Zim asked with difficulty. He had to order Gir to do that; it was the only way to keep the most top secret of Irken information hidden. Zim couldn't even believe that he was able to bring himself to order that. 

"He did, but not before we were able to extract _some_ information on your race," Dib replied.

Zim growled. He used all of his will power to not start speaking in an interesting combination of Irken and English. The last thing he needed was having the Dib-human ask him all sorts of questions about his native tongue. Zim started to walk away from Dib, but stopped momentarily.

"Aren't you glad, Dib, that I can't do anything? I'm defenseless, weak, and in your mercy. You could just kill me right now, or capture me," Zim stated, his voice void of emotions. He was tired. Tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of being endlessly chased. All he wanted was to rest, for once.

"Why would I do that, when as far as I know, Zim no longer exists in this world, according to my colleges. He left and never came back, and we were unable to follow him," Dib explained with a small smile as he walked up to Zim.

Zim turned around and gave him a confused look. "You mean that I no longer exist?" Dib nodded. "That you are no longer after my blood to see me on an autopsy table?" Again, a nod. "Could I try to start over? Not as an Irken Invader, but as me?"

Dib didn't nod that time, instead he looked deep in thought. "It would have to depend, your disguise was destroyed, right?" Zim nodded this time. "And what would you call yourself? Zim, you can't be 'Zim' anymore because they'll find out that you came back. I think you should just go back to where you came from," Dib stated.

"I don't want to go back…" Zim mumbled to himself, hoping that Dib hadn't heard him.

Dib looked at him with a confused expression. "Why wouldn't you? Don't you hate the human race?" he inquired.

"I hated the human race, yes, but they are better than my own kind. In fact, if I were to contact my superiors and tell them what had happened, they simply wouldn't care," Zim replied as he began to walk away.

He didn't care much about what had happened, either. All he wanted now was as place he could call home. He didn't care for friends, though. Zim was never blessed with a friend. Sure, on Irk there were some he could have called friends, but they had stopped talking to him since the Impending Doom I incident.

"I take it you never had anyone care about you like Gaz did…" Dib mumbled, more to himself than to Zim.

"I don't feel like talking about it," Zim growled. He was trying so hard to keep his temper in check, to not go and say every single insult he had saved for Dib after the day he came to capture him a year or so ago. 

Dib shut up and sighed. Zim seemed to have not noticed nor cared that Dib was trying to be nice for once. Zim simply believed that he would find a way out of this, without any help.

"I have to go, my father wanted me back in the lab by now," Dib stated as he made his way around Zim and out of the lab. "I suggest, Zim, that you don't stay here much longer. Go and create a new home for yourself here on Earth, in any country you want. Just don't call yourself 'Zim' anymore…."

Zim turned to ask him why he should do that, but Dib was already gone. Sighing, Zim got out of his old lab as quietly as he could. He wanted to see what the upper levels were like, but he felt as if he _knew_ already, so he didn't even bother.

Climbing into his Voot Runner solemnly, Zim took one last look at the place he once called home. His heart ached to see it in such a condition. He knew that he already missed it before taking this "visit" to his old home, but now he felt as if he couldn't leave it again. 

Zim shook his head. Invaders do _not_ get homesick. And if they lost their base, they weren't supposed to care. So he was going to do as he was taught to do: build a new base of operations. This time, however, it was going to be just a home. Sure, he'd have a lab, but he wouldn't contact the Tallest. They wanted him to disappear anyway, so why not give them what they wanted?

Zim flew the Voot Runner around his old neighborhood. He still knew the area as if it were the back of his hand. He surely was going to miss it. From where he was, he could see Dib walking to his house—his _home_—at a leisurely pace. Turning his head away from the Dib-human, he looked at the Skool.

That was it, he was going to rebuild, since the Earth _was_ his home to him, now. He hastily picked another vacant lot, landed, and looked around. He was lucky, once again, that no one was outside. He drew a house on his base-maker, one even more normal than his last one. He somehow managed to make a new disguise, and he walked into his new base.

Smiling slightly to himself, Zim went down into his new lab. Now, all he needed was a new name. He stretched and walked around the lab. Finally, he had a place to call home, once again, and he could start over. 

Leg: I have ideas for another chapter to this, but there is no way I'll write it. You hear that? I'm NOT STARTING a new series fic! 

Arm: Oh, don't worry, if she doesn't, I will, you guys… 

Leg: Damn you, Arm…. Anyways, review. Please? 


End file.
